The debate in the Statehouse over funding for Iowa’s Area Education Agencies was revived Monday as Senate Republicans passed a bill that would put local districts in control of most of the state money that currently flows directly to the AEAs.
Now both chambers have passed proposals, but there are major differences in the way GOP members of the Senate and House would approach AEA funding, particularly funding for special education services.
After a transition year, the Senate plan would divide control over funding so that only 10% of state funds for special education services would be guaranteed to the AEAs. Local districts would control the rest, which they could use to buy services from their AEAs, invest in their own services or contract with an outside provider.
That’s in contrast to the bill passed by the House GOP, which would keep AEAs as the sole providers of special education services to local school districts, as they are now. The House would send funding for special education services to local districts, but they must spend all of it with their regional AEAs.
Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said districts deserve a choice to determine how special ed funding is spent.
“The goal is to get the best return on investment for the most efficient delivery of special ed services to kids who need them,” Evans said. “Schools deserve to have more accountability and transparency for how their special education funding is spent. This bill provides them with more local control to base their spending on the unique needs of students in their districts.”
AEAs support local school districts across nine regions of the state with services that include teacher training, curriculum materials lending and traumatic crisis response. But the majority of the work done by the AEAs involves supporting special education. The AEAs employ specialists many districts could not hire on their own such as psychologists and audiologists.
Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said the AEA system was designed in the 1970s to share the cost of providing special education services across districts that are large, small, rich and poor. Allowing districts to pull their funding out of the system would undermine small school systems that may receive more services than they pay for.
“The dollars left — in mostly Republican school districts — will not be enough to buy the services that you are going to need. The AEA’s economy of scale and safety net is going to be gone,” Jochum said. “What you are doing today is creating more instability, more uncertainty, and this system will collapse.”
The Senate and House also take different routes, but end up at the same place, when it comes to property tax-funded media and education services currently provided by the AEAs.
In the next fiscal year, the Senate would send 40% of funding for media and education services to the AEAs while allowing local districts to control the rest. In the following years, school districts would control 100% of the funding for those services.
That would also be the result of the House plan, which is phased in over three years.
“That means the local school boards — your school boards — now actually have some say in how that money is budgeted and how it is expended,” Evans said. “If they want to do all of their business with the AEAs they can send it all to the AEA.”
The bill passed in the Senate (HF 2612) is technically a version of the House bill that was altered to swap in the Senate language. Unlike the House, though, the Senate does not propose to create a task force that would further study questions around AEA funding and services.
Sen. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids, said creating a task force is the only step lawmakers should take this year. She offered a failed amendment that would have stripped the bill of all of the funding changes and created a bipartisan commission to study the AEA system and its effectiveness.
@iowapublicradio The debate in the Statehouse over funding for Iowa’s Area Education Agencies was revived Monday as Senate Republicans passed a bill that would put local districts in control of most of the state money that currently flows directly to the AEAs. Now both chambers have passed proposals, but there are major differences in the way GOP members of the Senate and House would approach AEA funding, particularly funding for special education services. Read the full story at ipr.org #ipr #iowapublicradio #education #radio #npr #iowa #government ♬ original sound - Iowa Public Radio
“The energy generated across our state as AEA services have been called into question should be used to improve services and funding for Iowa students, not dismantling and risking the very system that supports students and educators across our state,” Donahue said.
The bill passed on a vote of 28-22 over bipartisan opposition. Six Republican members joined Democrats to vote against it.
In a statement, Gov. Kim Reynolds thanked the Senate for advancing the issue she first raised at the start of the session.
“I now look forward to working with the House and Senate to reach a compromise that will bring transparency, accountability, and consistency to the AEA system while most importantly improving outcomes for students with disabilities,” Reynolds said.
Negotiations with House and Senate Republicans will also have to cover teacher pay. The Senate AEA bill includes a plan to increase the minimum salary for new teachers from $33,500 to $46,251. Evans said that is the current average starting salary for teachers in the state.
The House has proposed a $50,000 minimum salary for teachers, the same level proposed by Reynolds, but passed it apart from the AEA bill. The House also included additional funding to support a $15 minimum wage for school support staff and to adjust the salaries of veteran teachers.
